ESPE Abstracts

Background: The ability to respond to stress constitutes a defensive protective mechanism; both inadequate and excessive responses may be detrimental.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the effect of increased body weight on the hormonal response to stress in children. Scheduled surgical procedures include two stressful parts, a psychological one (anticipation of operation) and a biological one (surgical stress per se) and were chosen as a study mod...

Background: Obesity in childhood and adolescence represents a major health problem of our century and accounts for a significant increase in morbidity and mortality in adulthood. In Greece, more than 35% of children and adolescents are currently overweight or obese.Objective and hypotheses: To develop a National e-Health System for General Pediatricians and General Practitioners for the prevention and management of overweight and obesity. Specific aims i...

Background: Since the initiation of neonatal screening-programs for congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in the 1970’s, an increase in the incidence of CH has been observed. This change has been attributed to the gradual use of lower TSH cut-offs that lead to the detection of milder cases of CH. Based on currently used screening cut-offs, CH occurs in approximately 1:2 000 to 1:4 000 newborns, varying by geographic location and ethnicity. A female predominance, approaching a 2:...

Background: The association of GH deficiency (GHD) with central precocious puberty (CPP) has been reported in individuals with central nervous system (CNS) abnormalities, congenital or acquired. Co-existence of GHD and CPP has been rarely reported, always as an isolated, sporadic disorder.Objective and hypotheses: To present the familial occurrence of combined GHD and CPP.Method: GH was measured post L DOPA, glucagon and GHRH and g...

Background: Silver Russell syndrome (SRS) is a rare imprinting disorder with prenatal and postnatal growth retardation and feeding difficulties. The main molecular causes are loss of methylation of the 11p15.5 imprinting control region (H19/IGF2) and maternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 7. Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a complex neurodevelopmental imprinting disorder with neonatal muscular hypotonia, failure to thrive to insatiable appetite, sho...

Background: Since the initiation of neonatal screening programs for Congenital Hypothyroidism (CH) in the 1970’s, a gradual decrease of TSH cut-off limits has been observed worldwide. Nevertheless, lack of universal consensus has led to wide variation of cut-off limits and LT4 therapy criteria among screening programs, even within the same country. The Greek neonatal CH screening program is carried out by a single laboratory that uses one of the lowest cut-off limits worl...

Background: The term Congenital Hypothyroidism (CH) describes children with subnormal thyroid hormone levels present at birth. According to literature, CH has an incidence of ~1:1500–1:3000 births with a clear predominance of females (female:male ratio 2:1) and is mainly caused by thyroid dysgenesis (80%). Low FT4 levels have been used as important criteria for CH diagnosis and treatment initiation. The Greek neonatal CH screening program has followed the TSH cut-off lowe...

Background: A high frequency of extrathyroidal congenital anomalies has been reported in infants with congenital hypothyroidism (CH) detected by neonatal screening. Current ESPE guidelines suggest that congenital malformations, underlying dysmorphic syndromes and psychomotor and language development should be sought for and monitored in CH patients. The identification of co-existing nosologies and malformations is helpful not only for clinical purposes but also for uncovering ...

Background: Molecular defects are rarely detected in Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) patients.Objective and Hypotheses: We hypothesized that the frequency of causative molecular defects could be higher in cases with early onset of POI. Moreover, the analysis of multiple genes in the same POI group could disclose co-existence of more than one molecular aberration.Method: In 25 subjects, aged 17.1±7 years at POI onset, bid...

Background: In vitro fertilisation (IVF) has been widely used during the last decades. Increased susceptibility to birth defects and a higher cardiometabolic risk in children born after IVF than naturally conceived (NC) children have been reported. Also, a higher incidence of hyperthyrotropinemia has been noted in children born after IVF with respect to NC children and has been attributed to an epigenetic modification of the TSH set-point.Object...